Cardiac Arrest Patients Need CPR, Not Hospitals, Doctor Says

Patients undergoing cardiac arrest are better off being treated right away by ambulatory teams instead of being taken to hospitals, a physician argued in The BMJ on Wednesday.

Cardiac arrest–not to be confused with a heart attack–is an instantaneous loss of heart function. A heart attack is caused by a blockage, whereas cardiac arrest is a malfunction in the heart’s systems. Typically, immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is the best treatment, but in his editorial, Jonathan Benger, a professor of emergency care at the University of the West of England, argues that there’s not a lot more a hospital can do, and that preparing a patient for transport only leads to delays in care.

In his opinion, that should stop.

In the U.K. less than 10% of patients with cardiac arrest survive and leave the hospital. In Benger’s argument, first responders should instead do what they can at the scene of…

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